The streaming wars have only just begun, but it’s not been clear what to make of the dark horse among the forthcoming platforms: Quibi, the curiously titled service from ex-Disney and Dreamworks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg. They’ve said they’re not competing with the likes of Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, etc., and in a way they aren’t: Their bag is short-form content, or “quick bites,” as they put it. What does that mean exactly? We’ll find out eventually, but in the meantime, they offered three trailers for some of their shows or content or whatever they’re calling it.
The first, which you can watch above, is for their reboot/remake of The Fugitive, the classic ’60s show (that inspired the 1993 hit with Harrison Ford) about a wrongfully imprisoned man scampering about the free world, trying to clear his name. Will they bring back the one-armed man? That remains to be seen, but you can catch Boyd Holbrook as our titular hero and Kiefer Sutherland, stepping into Tommy Lee Jones’ Oscar-winning shoes as the U.S. Marshal out to get him.
There’s are a trailers for Elba vs. Block, a reality show in which eternal Bond hopeful Idris Elba teams with superstar driver Ken Block to race some fast rides. And there’s Flipped, in which Kaitlin Olson and Will Forte play aspiring reality TV home renovators who get kidnapped by a drug cartel comprised of Andy Garcia, Eva Longoria, and Arturo Castro.
These ads certainly make these three look like traditional shows. But how short will each episode be? Are they even called episodes? Will each episode or whatever run the same length? Will you watch yet another Dr. Richard Kimball run around for five minute bites or what? We’ll have answers by no later than April 6, when Quibi goes live.
(Via Entertainment Weekly)
